Hansard bottles it

As many rhetorically-challenged members will testify, Hansard is a record of what parliamentarians meant to say. It should come as little surprise, then, that red-faced Nick Herbert offered no amendment to the draft sent to MPs yesterday and blogged by Kerry McCarthy,in which his unfortunate slip of the tongue was rendered as “cuts” rather than “c***s”:

Mrs Hodgson: As the Minister is no doubt aware, Northumbria police force, which covers my constituency, has recently confirmed that it is to make 450 civilian staff redundant immediately and it is imposing a recruitment freeze on all front-line posts, all because of the cuts made by the Home Secretary. Does the Minister think that those cuts to front-line policing will make my constituents safer?

Nick Herbert: I do not accept that those are cuts—

Hon. Members: What was that?*

Mr Speaker: Order. Opposition Members’ hearing is playing tricks with them. They did not hear what they thought they heard.

Nick Herbert: Mr Speaker, I am in very good company today.

*This is Hansard speak for ‘Hon. members started howling’.

Far be it for Scrapbook to suggest that the legal account of parliament’s proceedings it a tad dry – but we reckon this video is far more entertaining: